Beyond the Pink; Beyond a Cure

As even someone living under a rock knows (and itâ€™s probably a pink rock!), itâ€™s Breast Cancer Awareness Monthâ€”and that means that if you are looking for me I am probably in the air on my way to another speaking engagement or media opportunity!

I have been on the TODAY Show answering breast cancer questions,Â and on CNN American Morning talking about the fact that breast cancer awareness month may have outlived its usefulness. We are aware! What we need now is to go beyond pink and beyond the cure to stopping the disease altogether!

Interestingly, the other speaking requests I have had this month are at health care reform/comparative effectiveness meetings.Â These groups are fascinated that our Army of Women has bypassed the medical enterprise to find almost 400,000 women who are willing to participate in research to find the cause of breast cancer, and Iâ€™ve been pointing out to them that comparing the effectiveness of treatments or tests will mean nothing if they are not asking real people and not just studying medical records.Â It is one thing to look at a womanâ€™s medical record, electronic or otherwise, and see that she had a mammogram. But reviewing medical records wonâ€™t tell you whether it was good quality mammogram.Â Similarly, studies that compare two breast cancer prevention drugs are a waste of money if women donâ€™t want to take them because they donâ€™t believe the benefits of these drugs are worth the side effects.

Womenâ€™s voices need to be represented in all of these discussions, and the Army of Women and the Health of Women Study, which we will launch by the end of the year, will give you the opportunity to do just that! We are leading a new kind of revolution that says we need research studies that answer questions that are important to us, not just interesting to scientists!

There is no doubt in my mind that an Army of Women (and a few good men) can change the world. Together, and with your support, we can go beyond the pink and beyond a cure to end this disease!Â Wouldnâ€™t it be great to have October go back to being all about the beautiful colors of fall because breast cancer is a thing of the past!

I am one of those who “Thinks before I Pink”. Many companies take advantage of the “pink movement” to line their own pockets. Too often buying “pink” is nothing more than a “feel good” experience. If you want to really “feel good”, do support the Dr. Susan Love Foundation, or one of the many other legitimate organizations that will use your contributions wisely and join The Army of Women. I did. As a breast cancer/treatment survivor it is too bad I cannot say that surgery for breast cancer has increased my quality of life. I have, also, refused adjuvant therapy as the absolute benefits were not high enough to counter the decrease in quality of life. For me, quality trumps quantity every time!! Thank you Dr. Love for bring common sense to this issue!

Let’s remember with a cure we can get out of the business altogether; conjoined with the silent deadly disease of ovarian cancer and so many more women’s types of cancer. Prevention as in vaccines would be the ultimate.

YOU tell them girlfriend! Imagine if the 400,000 members of the AOW posted a notice in their local newspapers stating “breast cancer awareness month may have (HAS) outlived its usefulness. We are aware! What we need now is to go beyond pink and beyond the cure to stopping the disease altogether!” I am with you Susan….Breast Cancer Deadline 2020!!!!

As a breast cancer survivor, I am all for prevention! None of my mother’s generation had any kind of cancer, yet six of my generation have had it. This suggests an environmental contribution to any common genetics. If we can map the human genome, we can understand and prevent the causes of breast cancer! Let’s invest our money and time in the right places to accomplish that!

Cancer is big business. Big Pharma knows this. Personally although I am a breast cancer survivor I don’t think there will ever be a cure for breast cancer.

I wish that I didn’t think this. Oodles of money have been given for research. St. Judes is finding the causes of cancer in children. It has not taken them near the time that is taking researchers to find a cure for cancer.

Our food industry by using genetically altered food and also using preservatives are killing us and helping to increase the causes of all cancers.

We as individuals can only do so much. My diet is altered to use the purest ingredients, organically grown locally and cooked from scratch. Enough people are learning that things like MSG are dangerous to our health. Aspartame has caused deaths. And it goes on and on and on. Educating ourselves is important and taking our advocacy seriously is important as well.

Just for information purposes, I know of at least 6 or 7 different types of breast cancer alone. Lots of surgeries are used for cure of breast cancer. Women are led to believe that surgery will take care of the cancer in the body. And then chemo and/or radiation.

I am angry that we as women are being so swayed with all the studies that come out that may have only been for a short time and have some many variables that the studies can reveal anything that researchers want the studies to say.

I personally as my own project went to the websites of each of the three manufacturers of aromatase inhibitors (Arimidex, Femara and also Aromasin). I went through all the side effects that were listed on each websites. I have three pages of 10 pt font size singles spaced of side effects. Did a comparison of each medication with the other two. Amazing what doctors are asking us to do to ourselves by taking AIs after the chemo and radiation.

The human genome mapping is completed.

It is time for to push the researchers to a date when an affordable cure is coming.